So, Utah decided to just give the homeless places to live. The results are what anyone with sense, or who has followed the topic would expect: Utah’s Housing First program cost between $10,000 and $12,000 per person, about half of the $20,000 it cost to treat and care for homeless people on the street. Imagine [...]

While we, sadly, are all too familiar with the casual misogynistic comment, what perhaps is more surprising is where these slurs lately have been coming from—progressive bastions like the Brown camp, and liberal women.

Last month, liberal talk show host Stephanie Miller laughed uproariously when a female guest on her show said that if she ever met Michelle Malkin, “I would kick [her] right in the nuts,” and warned, “Wear a cup, lady.”

Charming.

Or how about this: “You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women. You sure can’t find out by how they vote.” This is what Democratic Rep. Janis Baird Sontany of Nashville said earlier this year of her female GOP colleagues.

Or this: “Sarah Palin may be a lady, but she ain’t no woman,” as Cinta Wilson wrote during the tsunami of anti-Palin hysteria in 2008. In her Salon piece, Wilson went on to refer to the Alaska governor as a “Christian Stepford wife in a ‘sexy librarian’ costume” and the GOP’s “hardcore pornographic centerfold spread.”

Who needs misogynist men when liberal women will do the job for you, often sounding that shopworn theme that women GOP candidates are somehow inauthentic women?

[…]

Not that liberal men are much better.

Ann Coulter is often referred to as “Mann-coulter” on political blogs in an effort to de-feminize her. And MSNBC’s Keith Olberman once referred to Malkin as a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick.”

In a Salon column last month headlined “Forget about the tea party—what about the crumpets?” Gene Lyons wrote that, “The most entertaining aspect of the 2010 election season has been the rise of the right-wing cuties—political celebrities whose main qualification is looking terrific on television. From where I sit, in a comfortable chair in front of the tube, the GOP Cupcake Factor has enlivened an otherwise dreary campaign season.”

You, Sir, are a pig.

Don’t worry Kristen, progressive misogynists (aka “fauxgressives”) don’t single out conservative women for that kind of crap. As far as they’re concerned ANY woman who gets in their way is fair game.

One does not need to engage in sexism and misogyny to criticize or ridicule a woman who merits it, just as we don’t need to use racism to criticize or ridicule Barack Obama. But sexism and misogyny don’t require sexist framing or misogynist terms and epithets.

Holding women to a different standard or treating them differently from men is sexism. Treating them with contempt because of their gender is misogyny.

Sexism and misogyny are anathema to liberal ideology.

On the other hand, fauxgressives only seem to care about such things when it’s convenient to them. They can’t plead ignorance though, because they know the difference between right and wrong.

Fauxgressives can post rants about the sexism inherent in a comment criticizing the clothing worn by Michelle Obama while at the same time wearing a shirt that says “Sarah Palin is a c*nt” and not feel the slightest twinge of cognitive dissonance.

That is not principled behavior.

Full disclosure:

I’m not perfect. In the past I have used sexist language and told sexist jokes. It was wrong when I did it too.

There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity — like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that’s what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel — it’s vulgar. – Molly Ivins

The Dems absolutely depend on women’s votes and claim to be our champions, then they’re expected to be fairly careful to make sure the phone’s disconnected before their real opinions slip out. Lol No matter what the Repubs say, nobody expects then to be on our side and our votes probably don’t figure that largely in their electoral calculus.

Attorney: She had three children, right?
Witness: Yes
Attorney: How many were boys?
Witness: None.
Attorney: Were there any girls?
Witness: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney, Can I get a new attorney?

While the content of the conversation is of course repugnant, the people of California may also question whether or not they wish to elect a person governor, who does not know how to hang up a telephone.

what perhaps is more surprising is where these slurs lately have been coming from—progressive bastions

What I find so surprising is how many progressives sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus after Dec. ’08. Just think how unsurprised they’d be if only they’d been born a few months earlier and suffered through the beautiful and inspiring primary.

And even more than the sexist insults and painful things we’ve seen coming from fauxgressives, are the prudish 50’s morality coming from them. Like how Palin shouldn’t have run for VP because she had kids, or how Bristol is a slut. What the fuck? I think they’ve been watching the wrong Ozzy.

And really, what does it say about the “creative class” that Obama’s been in office for almost two years and a lot of them are just hearing about him now? Gene Lyons hasn’t picked up a paper since 2008?

I remember back in the 90’s when the GOP had a bunch of telegenic females they used as spokeswomen on news shows and programs like Politically Incorrect. That’s probably how Christine O’Donnell got her start.

But the fact that they were young and attractive doesn’t make them stupid bimbos either.

Is there a moral difference between selecting them for their looks and picking Obama for his?

Conway is a magna cum laude graduate of Trinity College, Washington, D.C., where she earned a B.A. in Political Science. She also studied at Oxford University, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

She holds a law degree, with honors, from George Washington University Law Center. Kellyanne is admitted to practice law in four jurisdictions (Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia). She has practiced law, clerked for a judge in Washington, D.C.. For four years she was an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law Center.

If the male attorneys got caught up looking at attractive instead of focusing on their client, their bad. On the other hand, anytime a female USES only her sexuality to get ahead, it feeds into the stereotype that she is in her position because of her sexuality and not her ability…

What is the most heinous in this whole misogyny thing is when women do it to other women. That has to be the most wrenching thing about the above article. If Hillary had the same support among women as Obumbles has in the black community, she would have won in a walk.

That said, both parties need to establish internal groundrules as to how they talk ABOUT women as political figures. Furthermore, I wish that more women in the MSM would stand up to this and say how wrong it is to use that kind of language in this day and age in the national media.

Of course, I’m living in a dream world, but the fantasy is a nice one….

Eh. Women doing it to other women is annoying, but with so few around anyway it’s a tiny little drop in the bucket. I don’t like the fact that Rachel Maddow is there to validate the Gang, but when it comes down to it what difference does it really make if it’s Keith and Chris and Ed and David and Rachel or Keith and David and Ed and Chris and Ricky? *shrugs*

But that is the problem. With so few women, and NONE in the MSM, standing up and saying ‘…calling women witches is wrong…’ it further validates the men to continue to push that envelope of disrespect.
I am no fan of Sarah Palin’s politics. Her views and mine do not match in any way shape or form, and it would be a detriment to this country if she became president. Nowhere in my statement did I denigrate her womanhood. When you have women in the media solely focussed on her hair, clothes, husband, etc (where have we heard that before? I wonder…), it brings the level of discourse so far down as to make it disappear…..

Yeah, but if you had women in the MSM standing up and saying “nuh uh,” they’d be gone from the MSM. That’s what they’re there to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s okay for them to do this dance to keep their jobs. I just think it’s a bit like how all of the election year angst is focused on 3 Repub women, as if somehow they hold disproportionate power.

With so few women, and NONE in the MSM, standing up and saying ‘…calling women witches is wrong…’ it further validates the men to continue to push that envelope of disrespect.

Yes and it’s even worse than that.

Adults in power calling women witches and nobody in the MSM standing up and saying it’s wrong is also typical of what’s in our culture that teaches children that bullying is not only acceptable but it’s what the powerful successful adults do and condone.

The ObamaCamp, including MSM et al, treatment of Hillary and her supporters was and continues to be all about bullying, intimidation, ridicule, belittling. Look at that picture of Obama’s top speech writer. Meanwhile many of those same MSM people, the past couple of weeks, have been so “heartsick” over the stories of kids bullying and suicide — and I just keep thinking where the hell do you think they’re learning it??

Yeah, well, I don’t see a whole lot of prominent male Dems falling all over themselves to denounce Moonbeam, and not only are they far more numerous and powerful chez party, they have far more credibility to do so in the eyes of the media and political classes and while it wouldn’t be fun for them, they probably wouldn’t be absolutely eviscerated the way a prominent female Dem who dared to speak up would be.

Lynn De Rothchild did real well speaking up. We need more women willing to do so. I remember after Hillary suspened her campaign, several Dem women senators want on TV to tell women that they had to vote for Obama or the rethugs were going to enslave their uteruses. During those interviews, they were specifically asked about the treatment of Hillary Clinton, and none of them had the guts to call out the sexism and misogyny. It was shocking and spooky. They acted afraid. Boxer, Mikulski, Feinstein and Murray were all there. Now both Boxer and Murray are in the campaign fights of their lives.

It was so important for them to speak up. They probably lost the respect of a lot of women voters for being so weak and failing to state the obvious. It was pathetic. I was so angry that I started to cry watching them.

Yes, it matters and Lynn De Rothchild, Will and Hire heels went on the record and SpokeUp. I do think it hurt the elected Dems, with the women base and the recent ‘W” nuclear dropped recently didn’t help them as it has gotten wide coverage.

In my humble opinion, Gerry Brown needs to apologize and show leadership and from here on out pledge to not have name calling in his campaign of any form. I won’t mention why it matters, but in his case he is vulnerable already.

You are so right. But that’s one of the most insidious aspects of patriarchy. Girls are raised in a culture with an androcentric perspective. And that androcentric attitude seeps into the very common view of Feminism as being “unfair” because of its focus on women’s issues and the advancement of women, couple that with the instilled patriarchal stereotype of women as the caregivers of society (ie, everyone else comes first) and you end up with a pretty airtight Catch 22. Heaven forbid that a woman actually vote for, or support, another woman because she’s a woman! Oh no, women must be above all that, because it’s our job to be equitable to the point of self-sacrifice.

Many guilty feminists subcribe to this way of thinking. I saw it over and over again in 2008. Some how voting for a black man was more important than voting for a white woman. They went out of their way to find fault with Clinton, while utterly ignoring any fault of Obama’s. They became the gate keepers of the patriarchy, in the name of defending against black male oppression, and the Obama people played on it to the max. Some how “Hillary ain’t never been called a N*****”, trumped any sexist obsticles that she had encountered. The fact that she contunued to fight made it even more problematic to some. How dare she continue to reach for the brass ring, when an oppressed black man was reaching for it too. When she and Gloria Steinem attempted to push back on the issue, they both were rebuffed profusely and even accused of being racist by other feminists.

You go to N.O.W.’s website and you would think that it was a LGBT or civil rights for POC website.The oppression of POC and LGBT people are very important and worthy causes to defend against, but a women’s organization should fight for women, all women, but their mission should not be supplanted with these other struggles because portions of their constituancy experience multiple forms of oppression. I think that they should be supportive of these other movements and should ally with these groups, but they should not abandon or neglect their own mission in lieu of these others. NO ONE ELSE DOES THIS TO THEMSELVES. Women should STOP putting themselves last on the totem pole of priority. It has rendered these women’s groups ineffective. Women of all backgrounds have learned that they are not worthy of fighting for themselves or worthy of putting themselves, as women, first. Instead, they put everyone else first. White feminists have been ridiculed by WOC and others for daring to focus on women rather than these other “isms” for years, regardless of how inclusive the strive to be. As a result, they have cupitulated and have become impotent as a force for women’s rights. The NAACP isn’t focusing on sexism experienced by WOC, but no one is telling them that they are not inclusive enough. And because they rightfully remain focused on their mission of fighting racism, they are more effective in acheiving that mission..

Well, he’s lost my vote, and I use to work with the then
Governor. I had hopes of him dealing with the prison
issues here in California, but at this point, I don’t see it,
and when he said I dislike the death penalty, but will
put them to death, well hell with him, and frankly Meg too.

The Nobel Peace Prize is going to imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo, and the White House is still to busy polishing their Noble one and won’t comment about what President Obama has done for PEACE this last year.

There were nine attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old and calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the police said. Before setting upon their 30-year-old victim, they had snatched up two teenage boys whom they beat, the police said — until the boys — one of whom was sodomized with a plunger — admitted to having had sex with the man.

The attackers forced the man to strip to his underwear and tied him to a chair, the police said. One of the teenage victims was still there, and the “Goonies” ordered him to attack the man. The teenager hit him in the face and burned him with a cigarette on his nipple and penis as the others jeered and shouted gay slurs, the police said. Then the attackers whipped the man with a chain and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.

In my mind this is sex…a twisted, deeply sick sex…but this group was horribly brutalizing these boys and man because they wanted them…and in their ” minds ” that has to be masked and someone has to be punished.

The bullying and torturing in America has gotten out of control, and a lot of this violence is coming from the so-called “post-racial” and “liberal” Obama generation. There is a war on gays, effeminate men and boys, children, and women in America. Anyone who would be described as feminine or weak can be a potential target of these attacks.

There was a very good call in segment on CSPAN this morning. I was just watching it. Maybe you can catch it on their website later. The person being interviewed is Sibohan Bennett and the issue discussed was women in politics and the sexism. I think I’m going to write about it when I get a chance as it was really interesting. Here is the website she represents. http://www.nameitchangeit.org/
She said we are 90th in the world for women in elected positions. I knew we were way behind most countries but these are interesting facts none the less.

You people are so dang fast! I just came over to post this article. What was clearly missing was ANY reference to HRC and 2008. D-huh. I tried to get in to comment, but couldn’t for some reason. At least she made some true points:

“Politically, I agree very little with any of the conservative women mentioned in this column. But they have the same right as any woman to be treated with respect and dignity. Every time anyone—liberal, conservative, man or a woman—engage in sexist smears, all women lose.”

HOW ABOUT COUNTING VOTERS AS HALF A PERSON! I guess she thinks the latter is OK, cause she helped to mechanize it via the private poker room talks…and to heck with the VOTERS and their right to have their VOTES COUNTED!

It has become fashionable to speak of a Democratic comeback, but we’re not really seeing one in our forecasting models. Certainly there are some individual races — particularly on the East and West Coasts, as well as some gubernatorial contests outside these regions — that look better for Democrats than they did a few weeks ago. But we’re showing Republicans gaining ground where they need to gain it to maintain decent chances of taking over the Senate. We also show improvement for them in the House forecast this week.

Our model now estimates that the Republicans have a 72 percent chance of taking over the House, up from 67 percent last week. Moreover, they have nearly even odds of a achieving a net gain of 50 seats; their average gain in a typical simulation run was between 47 and 48 seats.

From the penthouse to the cellar in 2 years. So much for the Obots “permanent Democratic majority.”

When so-called liberal feminist sites like http://www.feministing.com not only jumped on the pro-Obama wagon, but even banned Hillary supporters and posted cartoons laughing at Hillary’s old, racist hag supporters who were trying to pressure their daughters into (gasp!) voting for a competent woman over the inexperienced man, that’s when I knew the progressive movement and even the parts of the feminist movement were misogynists in sheep’s clothing.

Women Democrats have taken an awful lot of hits for the team lately. Many of us didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary because the goal of electing a woman seemed less important than the goal of electing the best possible president.

you gotta say WTF?

Hillary is hammering on that glass ceiling with a pickax and Pollitt decides “I’m voting for the younger, less experienced male?”

How in God’s green Earth does a feminist conclude that Obama would make a better POTUS than Hillary?

Yea, I mean why vote for the WOMAN who has worked decades for the Democratic Party, who has gone to CHINA to speak about Women’s Rights and Human Rights, why pick a woman who has decades of working for Civil Rights, and Gay Rights…and on and on….

I guess they are happy with President Obama blocking the Public Option and not writing in protections for pre-existing conditions and with the insurance premium skyrocketing rates…

No wonder we are ranked 73rd in the world for having women representation, because WE ARE BLIND TO SEE THE WOMEN WHO ARE QUALIFIED, WORK HARD AND ARE LEADERS.

The Blogstalkers are frantically scouring the Buffoon Juice archives for proof I was telling the truth when I said I’ve used sexist language and told sexist jokes.

This is an example of one of my “sexist” jokes they found:

GP – I like your Superbowl recipes.
Until now I thought “Dirty Rice” was the SF 49er version of a “Dirty Sanchez”

Apparently they didn’t bother to read this part of my post:

Full disclosure:

I’m not perfect. In the past I have used sexist language and told sexist jokes. It was wrong when I did it too.

Assuming for the sake of argument that I am a very bad person as well as a hypocrite for criticizing something that I myself have done in the past, how does that justify their sexist statements and conduct?

Just the other day two different blogstalkers were referring to Bristol Palin as “Ballin” without one word of reproach from any of the others. Like I said, they don’t feel even the slightest twinge of cognitive dissonance.

What the Blogstalkers really should do is scour the TC archives. I have nearly 800 posts and 28,000+ comments since I came here. They won’t find what they’re looking for in there, but if they read every one of them maybe something will penetrate through the Kool-aid.

Body: This paper, or pre-draft, or sketch, or whatever it is, started out with this title: "With The 12-Point Platform, this won't happen: An aristocracy of credentialism in the 20%." But then I realized I'd gotten in deeper than I thought -- one of those posts were the framework and the notes overwhelm the original idea -- and as it tur […]

This is a big bunch of catch-up, here, 'cause it's been a helluva few weeks. Gaius Publius interviewed Alan Grayson on Virtually Speaking, where Grayson discussed "how he 'cracked the nut' that allows him to get progressive legislation passed. Part of his secret - his goal is to be a person who 'gets things done for the progress […]